Author: Paul Heidema

Agile was “formalized” in 2001 by 17 individuals that came to the conclusion that traditional approaches (aka waterfall) to deliver software were failing and ineffective. They created the Manifesto for Agile Software Development (aka the Agile Manifesto). The Agile Manifesto This manifesto contained 4 values and 12 principles that helped to guide and shape our[…]

Throughout our lives, we go through stages of development, expansion, and learning. This occurs when we are babies to childhood, from childhood to adolescence, and from adolescence to adulthood. It continues as a natural and important part of growth and advancement for us as individuals. This becomes particularly important when trying to function together in[…]

Scrum is an agile framework. Scrum is well-known too. Scrum enforces deep and challenges changes on those that use it. Is Scrum revolutionary, evolutionary, or just another agile framework? Let’s Examine the Agile Landscape Many agile practitioners and coaches alike consider agile to be a set of values and principles derived from the Agile Manifesto.[…]

Agile is popular and appearing all over the world and in most industries such as social action, education, mining, spiritual organizations, and family life. With this level of growth and interest, it is natural that we would extend the agile education system to helping others become coaches to help others. Throughout my experience as an[…]

Every organization is looking for a powerful catalyst. Each executive wants to embrace new opportunities for growth. All teams want to build amazing products. Each team member wants to be empowered. So how do Agile methods play a key part? Agile is a Dynamic Catalyst Using an Agile framework such as Scrum can greatly advance[…]

“Agile means no planning.” This myth is deeply rooted in our perspective on how Agile differs from a more traditional approach to work. This myth is busted. Read on to see why. There are many myths associated with Agile frameworks. Most of which are based on misinformation and lack understanding on why an individual or[…]

We all want to make our projects more successful. We all want to “wow” our customers. We all want to improve the quality of our work. What do we do? We adopt an Agile framework such as Scrum or Kanban to address the process problems in our organization. Yet, despite our best efforts it fails.[…]

Recently, I have seen many job postings for a Scrum Master (aka ScrumMaster) or a Product Owner role. It is nice to see these become more prominent on job posting sites. This means that, at least, Scrum is becoming more known and is part of conversations in HR departments. This is not a reflection of[…]

A powerful and often minimized event within Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban, OpenAgile, etc.) is the Retrospective. This event is critical for the entire agile team to advance and become effective. Plus, if done regularly and creatively, it can inform and change the organization that the team is within.